European Countries Talk Security and U.S. Election Aftermath in Budapest |
Top officials from the European Union (EU), Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are gathered in Hungary today to discuss their ambitions for Europe’s economic and political trajectory in the wake of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s election victory. Wary of a U.S.-EU trade war, European leaders stressed the need for EU unity, with European Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen cautioning that escalating trade tensions would be against both U.S. and European interests in her congratulatory remarks to Trump. Europe’s own internal political strains were also on display after Germany’s governing coalition collapsed yesterday.
The summit is the fifth meeting of the European Political Community. The grouping was founded on the heels of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and many attendees today voiced their own commitment to keep supporting Kyiv, urging Washington to continue doing the same. The leaders of France and Germany held talks yesterday following Trump’s election and said that Berlin and Paris would work together for a united Europe. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is facing calls to speed up the confidence vote that he said yesterday he envisioned for January. (Reuters, The Guardian, BBC)
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“The victory of Donald J. Trump will test the ability of America’s European allies to maintain solidarity, do more to build up their own militaries and defend their economic interests,” the New York Times’ Steven Erlanger writes. “When it comes to the economy, the European Union has been planning for months how it might deal with a President Trump.”
“To stanch the death and destruction and avoid what could become a wider war, NATO allies should seek to broker a cease-fire [in Ukraine]. An end to the fighting would enable the remaining 80 percent of Ukraine that is under Kyiv’s control to focus on becoming a stable and prosperous democracy capable of defending itself over the long haul,” CFR Senior Fellow Charles A. Kupchan writes in an Expert Brief.
“The best defense against the possible erosion of European security via an advancing Russia is still the intelligent and patient support of Ukraine, especially as the United States’ financial (and possibly military) commitment to Ukraine is likely to diminish in Donald Trump’s second term as president. The whole world is watching,” the Catholic University of America’s Michael Kimmage and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies’ Hanna Notte write for Foreign Affairs.
The EU’s foreign policy leader Josep Borrell spoke to CFR President Michael Froman in late September on how to navigate Europe’s challenges.
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Harris Concedes Election, Vows to Continue Political Fight |
Vice President Kamala Harris conceded the election to Trump in a speech yesterday that also encouraged her supporters to keep working to advance their vision “in the voting booth, in the courts, and in the public square.” She pledged a peaceful transfer of power and cooperation with the presidential transition process. (AP)
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Australian Government Proposes Ban on Social Media Use for Children Under Sixteen |
The ban set to be introduced in Australia’s legislature, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has unveiled to quash social media’s harms to youth, would be one of the world’s strictest. Unlike a similar ban in France, it could not be overridden with parental consent. (AP, Euronews)
The Why It Matters podcast gets into social media and the world of influencers.
U.S./South Korea: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol discussed Seoul’s security and economic partnerships with Washington, including how to respond to North Korea’s military cooperation with Russia, on a phone call congratulating President-Elect Trump. (Reuters)
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Lawmakers in Indian Kashmir Pass Resolution Calling for Return to Special Status
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A new local legislature took office last month in India-administered Kashmir; it is led by parties backing the region’s return to its previous semiautonomous status. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rules India nationally, was the only party in the Kashmir legislature to oppose yesterday’s nonbinding resolution. A change in the region’s status would still be subject to approval by its New Delhi-appointed lieutenant governor. (AP, Indian Express)
China/Myanmar: Chinese officials voiced support for the Myanmar military government’s plan to hold elections next year, Myanmar state media reported. Opposition groups have been barred from participating or refused to take part in the election. (Reuters)
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Middle East and North Africa |
New Hezbollah Leader Resists Political Settlement Over Israeli Military Campaign
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Naim Qassem laid out his stance in a televised address. He said Hezbollah would only agree to indirect negotiations if Israel stops its “aggression” in the country. Long-range rockets were shot from Lebanon toward central Israel before and during the speech. (Times of Israel)
Iran: A court sentenced four people to death on charges of spying for Israel, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency. Three of those sentenced were reportedly accused of facilitating equipment used in the 2020 killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist. (Reuters)
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Vaccine Partnership Allocates 899,000 Mpox Vaccine Doses for Nine African Countries
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A partnership that includes the World Health Organization, Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and vaccine alliance Gavi announced the new vaccine pool, which aims to ensure fair distribution of limited doses. Eighty-five percent of the shots will go to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the hardest-hit country. (UNICEF)
For Think Global Health, Maduabuchi MacDonald looks at Nigeria as an example of how youth can rise up to help counter mpox.
Zimbabwe: The government plans to allow a gold-backed currency it debuted in April to float freely on the market, a senior central bank official said, in an attempt to replace the U.S. dollar as the main unit of exchange. He did not specify when the change from a government-set exchange rate would occur. The bank devalued the currency in late September after it fell on the unofficial market. (Bloomberg)
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Irish PM Calls Snap Election on November 29 |
Prime Minister Simon Harris’s Fine Gael party has governed Ireland for a record fourteen years; their current coalition is with fellow centrist party Fianna Fáil and the environmentalist Green Party. Harris was required to call an election at some point before next March; it comes just a few weeks after he presented a budget with new cost-of-living support for households. (Politico, Bloomberg)
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Brazil’s Annual Amazon Deforestation Falls to Nine-Year Low |
Around 2,428 square miles of the Amazon were destroyed in the year ending in July, according to new government data released yesterday, its lowest since 2015. Brazil’s government has stepped up law enforcement to end deforestation by 2030, and plans to onboard another eight hundred federal environmental agents, its largest hiring drive in more than a decade. (Reuters)
CFR’s Diana Roy explores whether Amazon countries can save the rain forest.
Mexico: The government unveiled a plan for $23.4 billion in public investments in its energy sector and a target to source $9 billion of investments in renewables from private sources. President Claudia Sheinbaum’s predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador generally made it more difficult for private firms to participate in the energy sector, but Sheinbaum said she would cut red tape. (OilPrice, Reuters, Bloomberg)
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